BPO firms to hire 90,000 workers
Mia Gonzales, Business Mirror | 03/11/2009 1:14 AM
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CLARK FREE PORT—The government expects the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sector to hire as many as 90,000 jobs this year, or 20 percent more than last year, chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) said on Tuesday.
Roxas-Chua said in a press briefing after the Cabinet meeting that economic difficulties in other countries have strengthened the outsourcing industry and increased employment of BPO firms from 300,000 in 2007 to 372,000 in 2008.
He appraised President Arroyo and the Cabinet on developments in the Cybercorridor Superregion.
The CICT expects employment to rise “20 percent to 25 percent, or from 80,000 to 90,000 jobs. We are hopeful that that is attainable this year,” Roxas-Chua said.
In a report to the Cabinet, Roxas-Chua said security concerns have hampered the promotion of two cities in Mindanao—Davao and Cagayan de Oro—among the country’s top BPO hubs.
“These cities are a little bit handicapped because of the negative perception on Mindanao. . . We are aggressively trying to promote these cities to help investors overcome their fear,” he said.
A city’s readiness to be a BPO hub is determined by a set of criteria and topped by available talent, infrastructure, cost and business environment, he said.
Meanwhile, Roxas-Chua told the Cabinet that among the challenges facing the industry, “hiring efficiency” is a prime concern.
“Despite the success we have achieved in the industry...BPO operators are finding it more and more difficult to recruit,” he said. He later told reporters the administration has been working on improving the quality of BPO workers through a P1-billion scholarship program put in place last year under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and P350 million was spent on BPO training.
The President reminded Roxas-Chua to limit the coverage of the cybercorridor in the same way that superregions are limited to particular regions in relation to the sector being developed.
“Agriculture is all over the country, so is the cybercorridor,” the President said. “It is all over the country but where is the concentration? You have to cut it off somewhere.... Where is the cut off?”
Roxas-Chua had reported that 30 cities are ready to take in BPO investment, and that the cybercorridor runs across Manila and Cebu, plus the hubs—Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod, Pampanga Central, Lipa City, and two areas in Bulacan—Bulacan Central covering Baliwag, Marilao and Meycauayan; and Bulacan South covering Malolos and Calumpit.
The BPO sector generated $6.1 billion in revenues last year. The Philippines ranks third in the world’s BPO market share after Canada and India.
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